FCT Council Polls: Democracy Being Strangled Under Tinubu, Says Atiku

Former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, has lamented the low voter turnout recorded in Saturday’s area council elections in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, describing the development as evidence that Nigeria’s democracy is being “suffocated.”

In a statement issued on Sunday by his media office in Abuja, Atiku alleged that the political atmosphere under President Bola Tinubu has been tainted by intolerance, intimidation and the systematic weakening of opposition voices.

According to him, the apathy witnessed during the polls is not accidental but symptomatic of a deeper democratic crisis.

“When citizens lose faith that their votes matter, democracy begins to die,” he said.

“What we are witnessing is not mere voter apathy. It is a direct consequence of an administration that governs with a chokehold on pluralism. Democracy in Nigeria is being suffocated slowly, steadily and dangerously.”

The former presidential candidate warned that the steady erosion of participatory governance, if not urgently addressed, could inflict lasting damage on the nation’s democratic foundations.

“A democracy without vibrant opposition, without free political competition and without public confidence is democracy in name only,” he stated.

“If this chokehold is not released, history will record this era as the period when our hard-won freedoms were traded for fear and conformity.”

Atiku, a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress, called on opposition parties to close ranks and unite in the interest of national development.

Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress, APC, secured five out of the six chairmanship seats contested in the FCT council elections, while the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, clinched victory in Gwagwalada Area Council.

The ADC failed to secure any chairmanship position in the exercise.